CLEARWATER — It could turn out to be the most expensive home improvement Patricia Slaughter never wanted.

After the City Council passed a policy in September detailing how neighborhoods can petition the city to install brick streets on the homeowners’ dime, the affluent Harbor Oaks subdivision was the first to go for it.

City engineers evaluated the homes and sent each resident cost estimates based on square footage of paved street near each property.

After residents saw their preliminary estimates, the roughly 100-home neighborhood with 166 property owners voted 66.9 percent in favor of the renovations — the new city policy requires at least 65 percent approval.

If the project advances, that could leave some homeowners, including Slaughter, obligated to pay their share of the brick installation in the neighborhood even though they didn’t want it in the first place.

Slaughter’s share? A cool $26,630.

“Yeah, $26,000 is a lot of money for a brick street,” said Slaughter, who voted against the assessment. “I didn’t see the sense in it.” Read more: